CytomX Therapeutics、従業員の40%を解雇へ

Cancer-focused CytomX Therapeutics Inc. will lay off 40% of its workforce to help extend its cash into second-quarter 2026, the South San Francisco company said Monday.

It is the second round of large layoffs at the company (Nasdaq: CTMX), reflecting the protracted financial downturn in the life sciences industry. CytomX cut 40% of its staff — about 70 employees — in 2022. By the end of that year, however, it landed a research and development deal with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. that included a $30 million upfront payment.

“As we look ahead to 2025, we are taking steps to focus our strategy and capital allocation, further concentrating efforts on wholly-owned clinical-stage programs that we believe have the greatest potential for near-term value inflection,” Chairman and CEO Sean McCarthy said in a statement.

CytomX didn’t detail what programs it would throw overboard, but it said the job cuts would mostly hit positions that support early research that doesn’t have a partner as well as general and administrative functions.

At the end of September 2024, CytomX had $117.6 million in cash, equivalents and investments. At the same time, the 16-year-old company had accumulated a deficit of $687 million.

The company also has ongoing drug discovery alliances with Amgen Inc., Astellas Pharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Moderna Inc. that offer payouts based on scientific and regulatory milestones.

CytomX has been deeply involved in the development of antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, that widen the “therapeutic window” of drugs by increasing safety and boosting efficacy. The failure of its ADC praluzatamab ravtansine triggered the 2022 job cuts.

The company now says its drug CX-2051 is its lead program, focusing initially on a highly expressed by previously undruggable tumor antigen known as epithelial cell adhesion molecule for advanced metastatic colorectal cancer. It started an early-stage safety trial, using a drug licensed from AbbVie Inc., last April, cleaving the antibody payload inside the tumor.

CX-2051 is expected to deliver Phase Ia study results in the first half of this year.